Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride '81 was quoted in The Rockford Register Star on a decision by the IL Supreme Court to allow Gov. Pat Quinn to close several state prisons.

In a split decision, the high court directed that a lower court lift a preliminary injunction that had been granted to a state workers' union trying to keep the prisons open.

Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride dissented, arguing that the court was overstepping its bounds, ignoring key constitutional questions that the Quinn administration itself raised and taking the unusual step of determining that the arbitrator's ruling was correct

"Generally, the decision of whether a preliminary injunction should be dissolved is a matter that should be reserved to the trial court's discretion, with the benefit of arguments from the parties," Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride wrote in one of two dissenting opinions.